Happy Palm Sunday to my fellow Orthodoxes, and happy whatever you may be celebrating to everyone else!
The truth is that I had a completely different post planned for this week (and was also meaning to post it earlier), but all the preparations for the final classes before Easter break (which officially started yesterday) barely left me time to think about anything else. I did steal some time in all the chaos to redo my blog’s appearance, though, because it was bothering me. And I finally figured out a design that I’m completely happy with! Let me know what you think!
As for the actual post, I decided to do a tag, something quick and fun. And since I couldn’t remember if I had been tagged in anything before my long break, I went out searching. With Easter just around the corner, what better tag to do than the Little Women book tag created by Jananie @ This Story Aint Over?
“But, Nefeli,” you’ll ask, “what does Little Women have to do with Easter?”
You see, in Greece every year there are certain movies that are always on TV during the holidays. We get Home Alone, The Polar Express, The Grinch, and The Holiday on Christmas and Les Miserables (with Liam Neeson), Erin Brockovich, Soul Surfer, and Little Women (1994) on Easter. This year we even get the 2019 version on TV for the first time. All these during the day, of course— Easter week nights are reserved for Jesus of Nazareth. Don’t ask me why these particular choices are made for Easter, I do not know. What I do know is that since this has been the case with Greek TV ever since I can remember, I now associate Little Women with Easter despite the story literally opening with Christmas.
Anyway, off to the tag!
🌻Name a book that you wish you’d written because it’s just that good
Hm… I don’t know, really. I wish I could write like all my favourite authors. I guess at this specific point in time I’d say anything by Agatha Christie since I’m trying to figure out a mystery story and put it on paper. I’m stuck in the plot twists and how to up the stakes even more and enhance the mystery, and who better to channel than the queen of crime fiction herself?
🌻Name a book with a heroine whose journey is far more inspiring than her romantic relationships
The Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire. Taking down the totalitarian government? Name a more inspiring arc than this. I mean, I love her romantic arc, too, and my boy Peeta is one of my favourite characters of all time, but the whole journey Katniss goes through from the moment she enters the arena up to the end of the third book is one of the most ispiring stories I’ve ever read.
🌷Name a book with a supporting character/cast that makes the book for you
Book repetition here (it will happen again), but I honestly couldn’t not choose this book for this question. I adore the main cast, but the old winners/ new-entry tributes in Catching Fire bring a whole new air into the trilogy and they just steal the show. Finnick alone is enough for me to choose this book here, no second thoughts needed.
🌷Name a book with a character whose dreams/aspirations are very different from your own
I contemplated saying Daisy Jones for this one, but even though I do not necessarily want to be a rock star I do wish I could tour with a band every time I consume media about it, so maybe it isn’t the best fit after all. Gone Girl, on the other hand, is a perfect choice. Amy Dunne wants to make her husband’s life hell. I do not have a husband, let alone a shitty one to want to take revenge on. But, I see her and I support her. Good for her!
🌼Name a book with a character death that devastated you (spoilers)
The Fellowship of the Ring. Boromir. That’s it. I cried like a baby when I read about it and I already knew it was going to happen since I’d seen the movie before. I still bawl my eyes out every time I see it. It’s so well done, so heartbreakingly written.
🌼Name a genuinely good character you think deserves the best
Jane Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, an actual angel. She never has a bad thought about anyone, she is gentle and caring and she has so much love to give. Perfect all around, she deserves the world and more.
🌹Name a book with a character you love but who is generally disliked or misunderstood
The Phantom of the Opera. I adore all of them, but the first character to capture my heart at a very tender preteen age was Raoul de Chagny. Imagine my surprise when I got into fandom spaces and saw him get hate left and right for things that he never did or for actions that have been blown up in typical fandom behaviour. Sure, he is not perfect and he makes mistakes, but he just wants to save his friend and spends half the book crying. How can you not love him, I’ll never understand.
🌹Name a book with a ship you love but others generally dislike
The Phantom of the Opera, again. In full relation to my previous answer, here I’ll say Raoul and Christine. Just like my boy is hated for extremely overblown reasons, the ship is too. I totally get people who prefer Christine with the Phantom or single, but what I don’t get is the general sentiment of excessive dislike or even hatred I’ve seen towards my ship online. They’re just so adorable in my eyes!
This is it for the tag! I had so much fun answering these questions trying not to use Little Women as a response to everything. Still, some repetitions were unavoidable. I wasn’t tagged to do this, so I’m not tagging anyone else. However, feel free to say I tagged you if you wish to do the tag yourselves.
Oh, and a heads up! You will probably not see any new post for me in the upcoming week (and maybe even the next one) because I will be busy spending Easter with my family. See you after the holidays!
How would you answer these questions? Do we have any common answers?
To my fellow Easter celebrators, are there any stories you associate with the holiday apart from the biblical ones?
ΒiblioΝebula 
Well, we would:
Like you, I don’t understand the hate Raoul gets period. Same with the romance between Christine and Raoul. Seriously??
I wouldn’t agree with Hunger Games answers- reason being (dislike the series)
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It’s so good to find others who don’t hate Raoul and the romance between him and Christine. The shock I first experienced when I saw how much hate they got online was so strong. It still baffles me now that I’m used to it.
Oh, and I totally get not agreeing with some answers because you didn’t like the books. We’ll agree to disagree!
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Same- always hard to find those fans
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Love the new look of your blog! It’s so elegant and I’m already jealous 😄
I was trying to think of a different answer to the question about an inspiring heroine but Katniss is literally the best choice. It’s like you can tell Collins knew Katniss’s journey and fight against the Capitol was actually more important than her romantic relationships and that’s just not very common in YA as surprising as that is. I also approve of your choice of Catching Fire for supporting characters. Finnick really sets the bar high. My own choice for that question might have involved a certain friend-shaped washing machine 😉😂
It’s really strange how certain movies are always shown around holidays because yes, that happens here too. No matter what holiday it is, as long as it’s a school break, all Harry Potter movies will be on TV here. I think they’ve reserved the Lord of the Rings for Christmas, although I don’t know why they are Christmas movies. During Easter, they often show one of those mini-series adaptations of Ken Follet’s books so either Pillars of the Earth or World Without End, and I could watch both of those a hundred times without getting bored so I don’t mind 😅
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Thank you! Your blog looks really nice, too, with its bold colour combination!
I’m glad we agree on the Hunger Games answers. I contemplated a lot on them, especially the one about the inspiring journey, and, as you said, I couldn’t find a better choice than Katniss. It is indeed quite uncommon to see this type of arc in YA. Also, I love how “friend-shaped washing machine” has caught on with you 😂
Does showing the Harry Potter movies during the holidays there make sense to me because they have certain characteristics or because I’ve been conditioned to consider them holiday films since they always show them here on Christmas too? 🤔 It’s so interesting that all TV broadcasters no matter the country have chosen to treat certain films as holiday films without obvious criteria. But, hey, it’s usually beloved movies so I don’t mind either 😅
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Happy Easter break! I’m glad you survived all of your class preparations and hope you finally get some free time to relax! 💙
Also, I am in awe of your design skills! 😍 It literally took me YEARS to get my blog’s look to where it is now and that still looks like first grade work compared to yours… I especially love the colors!! Everything looks so bright and happy 🥰 However, I do have one small suggestion, since I am that one lazy person who usually reads blog posts on her phone and therefore happened to notice that your current header is non-responsive, meaning that when you change screen-size, it no longer displays the whole thing. I’m not sure how fluent you are in HTML, but that’s a fairly easy fix, so if you need any help, feel free to exploit my usually very useless-in-the-real-world math major knowledge 😂
As to the tag – I loved this! Even if we don’t agree on all answers 😁 I’m right with you on wanting Agatha Christie’s writing skills and admiring Catching Fire’s epic cast, I cackled at the sentenced “I do not have a husband, let alone a shitty one to want to take revenge on. But I see her and support her!”, I still get teary-eyed over Boromir’s death on Lord of the Rings rereads/rewatches, and I agree that Jane pretty much puts us all to shame in her perfection. However, even though I think it’s amazing what Katniss did for her country, I think all the trauma, pain, and loss she had to go through to get there doesn’t exactly inspire me to the point that I’d want to repeat her journey 😅 I’m a major wimp, okay! I’d rather have Peeta without being turned into an even more depressed mess in the process 🤔 Finally – I’m very sorry for this, you’re going to hate me so much 😭 – I detest Raoul and Christine – in the BOOK!! I do like them in the musical, but their romantic storyline in the book induced so much eye-rolling that I’m surprised my eyes are still attached, honestly. Please just stay away from my least favorite books of 2022 post, I guess, so we can remain friends? 🥺
Also, I found it fascinating learning about Greek TV around Easter! I’m afraid I can’t help you out regarding Germany – my family doesn’t own a TV and apparently, the Easter classics aren’t as mainstream as the Christmas or New Year’s classics (a bunch of German movies of which you probably only know “Sissi” as well as “The Little Lord” and “Love, Actually” for Christmas, and this German classic called “Die Feuerzangenbowle” and “Dinner for One” on New Year’s Eve), most of which we end up watching anyway. Easter is more of a board game than TV holiday for us, I guess. But I approve of Greece’s selection – you can always watch “Little Women”! 🤗
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Thank you! I do hope I can recharge because we have exam season very soon after Easter break and I need the energy to pull through. And thank you for complimenting my designing skills even though I mostly clicked on things hoping it’ll turn out well 😂 Please, do help me with the phone header because I’ve noticed it too and it’s bugging me a lot. I have no idea about HTML but I’m willing to at least try.
I’m glad we see eye to eye in many answers, and I’m also glad we disagree on some because it’s the healthy thing to do 😅 After seeing The Fellowship of the Ring again last night (and for the first time in my life at the cinema) I reaffirm my answer regarding Boromir’s death. I knew it was coming and yet I was crying silently in my seat. As for Katniss, I am a wimp, too, so I may not choose to take up a similar journey, but perhaps go for something less grand in that direction. It’s not like the government isn’t giving us reasons to go against it every day 🙃. As for Raoul and Christine, I get it if you found them annoying— it hurts me, but I will accept it. As long as it’s not pure hatred based on overblown things that barely happened (as is the case in certain parts of the fandom), I think our friendship will survive!
When I first heard that “Sissi” was a Christmas classic in Germany I found it so strange because it was literally on TV every day in summer when I was little. It’s connected to summer break in my mind. Board games used to be a big Easter thing for us, too, when my cousins and I were younger. We still play some now, but it’s not every Easter that all of us can make it to the family gathering. Still, Easter will always be a TV holiday for everyone in Greece because, as we say, it’s not Easter week until you see “Jesus of Nazareth” on TV.
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Exam season is the worst! Ours is coming up, too, and I feel like I could use a lot more recharging first 😅
But – I’ve had a look at your site’s code and **think** I’ve found a way to fix things! Go to your WordPress Dashboard, find “Additional CSS” under “Appearance”, and enter the following code into the box that pops up:
div.header-bg {
background-size: 100%;
}
I hope that works! Your current theme seems to only support adjustable background images for screen sizes with a minimum with of 50em, and I’m not entirely sure if custom CSS will be enough to override it… But if this works, it’s definitely a whole lot easier than directly changing your code, so fingers crossed! 🤞
And lol, yeah, I mainly found Raoul and Christine annoying because of their horrendous decision making skills 🙈 I’m not sure why everyone else hates them – or why people ship Christine with the Phantom, which is absolutely beyond my comprehension – but I wouldn’t say I outright despise them… So hopefully, our friendship is saved! 😂
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Hey, sorry for replying so late, I was busy with Easter celebrations. I tried what you recommend but it tells me that I need a premium plan to access additional css and I’m not paying for that. I guess we’ll just have to get used to the mobile version looking like that 😅 Anyway, thanks again for offering help with this ❤️
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Weird 🤔 I don’t have a premium plan either and it works for me, but I have no idea why… If I ever figure it out, I’ll definitely let you know! I hope you had a great Easter! 💙
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